Rolling-phase dynamic full-field OCT

Abstract

Dynamic full-field optical coherence tomography (DFFOCT) has recently emerged as an invaluable label-free microscopy technique, owing to its sensitivity to cell activity, as well as speed and sectioning ability. However, the quality of DFFOCT images is often degraded due to phase noise and fringe artifacts. In this work, we present a new implementation, to the best of our knowledge, named rolling-phase (RP) DFFOCT, in which the reference arm is slowly scanned over magnitudes exceeding 2π. We demonstrate mathematically and experimentally that it shows superior image quality while enabling to extract both static and dynamic contrast simultaneously. We showcase RP-DFFOCT on a macaque retinal explant and demonstrate its ability to better resolve subcellular structures, including intranuclear activity.